Maybe Ted Cruz and Barack Obama are not as far apart on ObamaCare as we thought.

Before the government shut down, the Texas senator and his Republican allies in the House were denounced as extremists for wanting ObamaCare repealed in exchange for keeping the government going. Yet now it’s the president and his Democratic allies who want to delay, indefinitely, key parts of this law.

If the Democrats get their way, we have to wonder: What’s the difference between repealing the law and not implementing it?

In July, the administration put off the employer mandate for a year. A few weeks ago, the president said insurance companies could hold off canceling their old policies. And now he’s pushed back next year’s enrollment period so that it will run from November 15, 2014, to January 15, 2015. Not only does this extend the time on the back end, it conveniently moves the start date until after the mid-term elections.

These are the latest of various deadline extenders and policy waivers on the part of Team Obama. And we can expect even more postponements, given the administration’s estimate that 78 million more Americans could lose their existing, employer-based health coverage because of ObamaCare.

At least with regard to the law taking force, these White House moves now leave the president in largely the same place as Sen. Cruz. The big difference seems to be that while Cruz wants to get rid of ObamaCare altogether and all at once, the president seems to want piecemeal measures to delay it from taking effect.